Greg Ellis

Is this why we have missed you at the last couple of fly-ins? Sorry to hear about your foot and hope you get well very soon.

One of the mottos of the VMG is "It is not the planes that are vintage....It's the pilots!!!" So no airplane is too new.

1) Engine failure (loss of oil pressure and increase in CHT's; engine quit on short final to an emergency landing) 2) Generator failure X 2

I am 50 hours into an overhauled engine from Western Skyways. The overhaul after all was said and done was closer to $30,000 for me due to circumstances of where the overhaul was done. I had to land in Clovis, NM after a loss of oil pressure and high CHT's. Clovis is not where you want to be if you need an engine overhaul. Western Skyways did a great job of the engine though and after my regular A&P fixed the issues from the shop that did the engine swap, the plane is doing great. So budget wisely for any overruns because there definitely will be. Western Skyways charges an initial $5000.00 deposit to start the engine building. You get that back if you return them a usuable core. The final rate for the engine (O-360-A1D) was $20,000. The rest was in labor. This was back in June. It took roughly 7 weeks to get the engine because of a back order for the pistons they were using. Fuel system and Mags and wiring harnesses were all new.

I use Pilot WizPro, aeroweather, Checklist Lite, Aopa's airport directory. Flight Aware has a live tracking app for the i-Phone. I also use www.Fltplan.com/iphone.htm to file flight plans.

I have a 1963 C model and put about 150-175 hours per year on the plane.

I also calibrated a Paint Stick but was a little more anal about it. I started with the empty tank and marked off gallon increments (put in a gallon, marked the stick, put in another gallon and marked the stick, etc...) until full.

I agree with the previous post only in the comment that everyone should run their airplanes where they feel comfortable. I feel completely comfortable running a tank dry. Now remember I am not running both tanks dry. I still land with my reserves and have been doing this for 3 years, since I bought my Mooney. I did not see it in any of the posts but I recommend reading the following by John Deakin. http://www.avweb.com/news/pelican/182044-1.html Whether you plan on running the tanks dry or not is your choice but this article makes a lot of sense and it completely works. As far as the idea of sucking in junk from your tank, John covers it in his article. It is a good read and even if you are not considering this procedure. Greg Ellis, 1963 M20C @ KFWS